Laz on TELEMUNDO

Last Friday I was invited to appear on Telemundo, only the biggest Spanish television network in the universe! I awoke at 5:30am, yes AM, and got myself ready in the darkness. I hoped on a bus to Times Square where I met my three colleagues for the ride back to New Jersey. That’s where the studios are located. It was snowing like mad outside but the streets were so peaceful at 6am . It was so early even the sun wasn’t awake yet and the only noise surrounding me was the sound of silence.

We arrived at the studios right on time and promptly entered. The place looks just like a corporate office but has a huge television studio smack in the middle. Three different sets sat next to each other. A news set, a green screen, and one was made up with Christmas décor with fake presents strategically placed everywhere. After a quick look around we made our way to the kitchen, that’s where we came upon a very expensive looking cappuccino machine. We immediately began making cappuccinos while wondering what in the hell we were going to do. You see, my producer failed to mention the fact that we had to fill about twelve minutes of air time and we had nothing prepared, not a thing.

Now we have an unprepared group of comedians hopped up on cappuccino attempting to brainstorm. No one wanted to leave the kitchen for fear of running out of this super coffee, so we sat and tried to think up a few skits. We had this great idea of mocking the news and concentrated our hyper energy into coming up with a quick scenario. After about an hour we had our concept and were ready to fly, needless to say some of us already on our third cup of cappuccino did fly.
Bringing some cappuccino with us we waited in the green room and rehearsed our scenes in Spanish. After a short time the producer came in and asked us to join him in the studio where they were going to pre tape our appearance. We showed him what we had planned and then…he turned it down. He explained that they were the news and could not mock themselves, ah censorship. We stood there in shock and awe. Now we really have nothing and the camera is rolling. We quickly huddled, and in a chaotic mess of coffee bean energy we pulled from our bag of tricks four sketches in 2 minutes flat. Wow. We performed them one after another and slowly people who worked there, crew members, producers, and actors all began to crowd around the set, watching us perform. They began to laugh and applaud and by the time it was over everyone had a big smile on their face. One person shouted out, “Give us another one!” So we snuck in a quick promo for our show as silly as can be.

After hovering around a bit longer taking pictures we decided to leave but not before I made the mistake of referring to the station as channel 41, instead of 47. You see, channel 41 is their nemesis, their rival enemy, the station they want dead. DOH! It must have been the coffee talking.

LLEGAMOS Show Status

Two shows complete, only two to go. We’ve had a decent size audience and Coors has enjoyed our performances. It’s been weird, it’s been wacky, and it’s been fun. If you’re in the New York City area you should defiantly check out this show because it’s one of a kind.

Last Week in Yuppie Land

This is my last week working in corporate America. Like so many others before me I have been laid-off. People keep coming up to me offering me their apologies but for me this isn’t such a sad occasion. When you get laid off people look at you like you have some sort of rare incurable disease and some won’t speak to you for fear of it being contagious. I’m looking forward to some lazy days and have planned a trip to California in January. I’ve had to put some projects on hold because of these life changes but I’m sure I’ll come back to them at some point soon. Sometimes life makes you take a break even if you don’t want one, in this case, I want one.

Goodbye Richard Pryor
The painting above was done by good friend and comedian Nestor Rodriguez.

A groundbreaking legend of comedy, Richard Pryor has passed away this weekend. I just wanted to acknowledge how much he inspired me as a kid to pursue comedy. He always had a way of telling us the truth and showing us how we can find humor in even the hardest of times. Thank You Richard Pryor for making us laugh and enriching the way we look at our lives.